Build Upon The Momentum - Hughes

MARK HUGHES is hoping that his charges can continue their good run of form of late when they travel to Norwich City in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday afternoon.

The Potters head to Carrow Road having picked up positive home results against Arsenal and Manchester United as well as performing well on their travels at Southampton and Manchester City in recent weeks.

The former Wales boss told Stoke City Player he wants his team to build on their good run of results when they come up against the Canaries.

“We are on a decent run of form in terms of performances and we have been backing them up with results as well,” Hughes revealed.

“We’ve had two decent performances away from home recently after we got a good point at Southampton and although we didn’t pick anything up from Manchester City we certainly gave a good account of ourselves.

“We backed them up with great performances and results against Arsenal and Manchester United so we are in decent shape leading into the match.

“If we perform well on Saturday then we’ll give Norwich a difficult game that’s for sure.”

The win against Arsenal at the Britannia Stadium last weekend also gives City the chance to secure back-to-back victories in the Premier League for the first time since August.

The 50-year-old says securing consecutive wins is something he is always targeting but it can prove difficult in the top-flight.

“It is something which we are always striving to do but it’s difficult in the Premier League because you know week in, week out there is always going to be a huge test in terms of the opposition at the top, middle and bottom.

“On the back of the Arsenal result it would be a shame if we couldn’t go and put in a good performance and pick up some points on our travels.

“That’s been our Achilles heel this season to be perfectly honest and we all accept that, but we’ve seen decent signs in the last couple of away games to think that it is maybe changing now and we are going to be more accomplished away from home.”

Norwich sit two places and two points behind the Potters heading into game and are in unbeaten at Carrow Road since the turn of the year.

Hughes knows from past experience that it will be a difficult fixture, but says it is the first of a number of games which could shape the Club’s destiny this term.

“They are well organised and are set-up well by Chris Hughton,” he said.

“It’s never easy to go to Carrow Road and my experiences as a player and manager tell me that.

“They get big crowds who are ferocious so we will have to deal with that but I just sense we are on a run of form now that we can maintain.

“We have shown that we can go up against the best teams in the Premier League and give a good account of ourselves so we have just got to do it against teams who are in and around us because it is going to be key to how many points we accumulate at the end of the season.

“We can help ourselves and damage other teams at the same time if we manage to secure positive results out of the next few games.

“It is pretty obvious that it would go a long way to determining what we are going to at the end of the season when we look back.”